Howdy folks! Welcome back to the World Wetlands Day edition of the recent sightings. With me, Chris the Visitor Guy. And if you are talking wetlands, Frampton Marsh IS a great example. Created from scratch and now home to lots of wonderful wildlife. Such as what? Well, cue the maps...
Well, that is a pretty good board to start with, with the dowitcher, water pipits, and a good supporting cast.
Quite windy on the Sunday, which made finding things harder. The female scaup showed off nicely on the reedbed though, and the Cape shelduck popped back up.
The cold weather has meant the water rails are becoming more visible
Sunshine on Wednesday brought the birds (and voles) out to play with a good variety. The swans all came in for a midday wash and brush up, a fantastic sight!
And to end the week, the reserve's second ever record of hooded crow, harassing a marsh harrier out over the saltmarsh.
So, that is a pretty good array of things to look out for. So, what about some nice photos?
We will start where we left off last week, with a nice wigeon shot from Neil Smith.
Talking of ducks, Jeremy Eyeons found these drake teals having a squabble
Whilst these goldeneye were getting frisky
He also managed to get a photo of a stonechat. They've been a bit sparse at Frampton this year, but they are still about at Freiston.
One thing you should be sure of seeing are lapwing, as they are all over the place. Chris Butterfield caught this one, in need of a napkin
And Alan Bewster caught this one in mid tug-o-war with its lunch
Finally, Macca got a great shot of a meadow pipit sitting still for once. Though I have seen more comfortable looking perches!
If you look at photos like these and wish you could take them too, we have a Improve Your Photography course on 24 February. Follow this link to secure your place. Whilst we are talking about events, we also have a special bird of prey event on 17 February, as our warden will take you out to try to spot as many different raptors and owls as possible, then have a nice cuppa to warm up again after. Tickets for that can be found here.
So there you have it! If you are coming to visit us, you can keep up to date with the sightings by following our Twitter account. No need to have an account yourself, we make it so everyone can see it. If you do tweet yourself, please remember to use #RSPBframpton so we can see what you are posting, and also ideally mention @RSPBNorfolkLinc. If you have any good photos (or video, or even artwork) we'd love to see that too. Tweet it, or share it on our Facebook page or our Flickr account. It may also be useful for you to know the weather and tide times for the site, which may well have an impact on what is showing. Finally, if the weather turns out to be colder than you'd planned on, you can buy hats, scarves and gloves, lovingly knitted by our lovely volunteers, from the visitor centre.
All the best, take care, and I will catch you next time!
Chris